NYCACC: A Cat Killing Machine

I have an odd perspective on New York City Animal Care and Control (NYCACC) being that I am mostly an outsider who comes in to pull and transport animals, and as such there are some things about their internal workings that are obvious to some that get by me. Here’s one of the more glaring ones.

I was recently part of a rescue that pulled 108 cats, mostly kittens and their moms, from NYCACC. Some of the kittens were young, bottle babies. Some were nursing. Many were weaned from their mother and able to eat on their own, ready for adoption. Kitten season is killing season at NYCACC and the kill lists lately have been quite large, up to 53 cats on one particular evening. Despite their repeated bleating that “no healthy animals are killed at ACC” a quick look at the lists will confirm that they do indeed kill many healthy animals on a daily basis, as I have shown before.

Silly me, I assumed the rescues were part of the relief valve that was taking overflow that NYCACC couldn’t handle when it turns out that they’re not even trying. Recently I was reviewing some email threads that had been forwarded to me where it was mentioned in a casual aside that as a general rule, NYCACC doesn’t adopt out kittens.

Wait, what?

That can’t be right. In Manhattan, I’m rarely in the adoption wards, as they are upstairs and out of the way – most of my time is spent on the ground floor in the lobby and offices there.

So I went there. The cat adoptions ward of NYCACC Manhattan is a small room with cages lining all 4 walls.

The Manhattan adoptions ward has a total of 60 cages. On the day I visited, 4 of those cages were marked for animals who were in surgery. 13 of those cages sat empty, with clean litter boxes and no paperwork on the door. And not a single one of them contained a cat under one year old.

I couldn’t believe it. I asked the attendant, an NYCACC employee, if they had any kittens available, and she said no. I asked how often they had them and she said every once in a while, and that she might be getting a pair of 10 month old cats in a few days. I asked if they ever had young kittens, just weaned, and she said no.

NYCACC is killing kittens that they have made not the slightest effort to save; even the ones who require no special care – weaned from their mothers, ready to go. They are bypassing the adoption ward and going straight to the kill list, these highly adoptable animals – sought after by adopters and commanding a higher adoption fee. They are killing them for no reason at all.

Even monsters usually work in their own best interests; it doesn’t take a genius to see that saving animals who fly out the door with minimal promotion and top adoption fees is a no-brainer. How could they justify this? I emailed Executive Director Julie Bank and Director of Communications Richard Gentles and asked how this could be. Here is the response I received from Richard Gentles:

We sincerely wish we could find homes for all the kittens that come to our Centers, but sadly, many are not ready for general adoption when they arrive. This is one reason we’re trying to grow our foster program, and why our New Hope partnerships are so important.

Healthy kittens at least eight-weeks old do get adopted very quickly, either to the public or to our New Hope partners. A healthy two-month old kitten moved to our adoption ward at noon could very well be adopted by 1pm that same day — so even in the midst of kitten season, you won’t always see cats less than one-year old available. Also, cats that come in as strays are held for 72 hours (to allow guardians to claim lost pets). This means that even if a kennel is available in the adoption ward, we would not be able to move them until the holds are up. (When potential adopters visit, we encourage them to consider taking home an older pet, as even slightly more mature cats are often ignored despite the numerous benefits they offer).

A two-week old kitten has vastly different needs than a two-month old kitten, with the former requiring resources we regrettably do not have. They need much more socialization than older cats, and many are unable to eat on their own and require bottle-feeding, which cannot be provided in the centers. If they can eat on their own, kittens may still be too young (under eight weeks) and underweight (under two pounds) to be spayed or neutered, and it is required by law that every animal leaving a NYC shelter be altered. At the same time, they are much more susceptible to infectious diseases. For all these reasons, it is imperative that very young kittens not stay in our centers, and the majority of them are transferred out. We reach out to our New Hope partners, sending pleas and alerts, and we also try to find placement with AC&C foster parents. We currently have foster volunteers caring for some kittens, but we always need more people to get involved.

We encourage more animal placement organizations in the community to become New Hope partners, and we urge animal lovers to join our foster program and open their homes to animals in need. If you’re interested in helping out with our volunteer team, please visit http://nycacc.org/Volunteer.htm. We recently advertised the foster program in Metro, and will continue to promote it widely in the coming months.

Let me parse some of the statements given here.

We sincerely wish we could find homes for all the kittens that come to our Centers, but sadly, many are not ready for general adoption when they arrive.

Saving animals is too much work. Also, we kill kittens.

A healthy two-month old kitten moved to our adoption ward at noon could very well be adopted by 1pm that same day — so even in the midst of kitten season, you won’t always see cats less than one-year old available.

Except that the staff in those adoption wards say that they don’t ever have two month old kittens… and ten month old kittens *may* arrive in a few days in a week when so many kittens are kill-listed.

Also, cats that come in as strays are held for 72 hours (to allow guardians to claim lost pets). This means that even if a kennel is available in the adoption ward, we would not be able to move them until the holds are up.

I’m confused: so they can’t be moved to the adoptions ward, but they can be moved to the kill list?

(When potential adopters visit, we encourage them to consider taking home an older pet, as even slightly more mature cats are often ignored despite the numerous benefits they offer).

Adopting an older pet appears to be encouraged by not offering anything else.

A two-week old kitten has vastly different needs than a two-month old kitten, with the former requiring resources we regrettably do not have. They need much more socialization than older cats, and many are unable to eat on their own and require bottle-feeding, which cannot be provided in the centers.

Of course it could, but it would be better provided in foster homes, which I don’t think you’re actually looking for.

If they can eat on their own, kittens may still be too young (under eight weeks) and underweight (under two pounds) to be spayed or neutered, and it is required by law that every animal leaving a NYC shelter be altered.

Here it is folks: the big lie. This is actually not a city law he is referring to, but a state law, and that law very specifically provides for young animals to be adopted out unaltered with a security deposit given and a contract to bring the animal back for altering once they are of age. This is how every other shelter in New York does this: by taking an S/N deposit and requiring that people come back. The “it’s against the law!” argument is quite simply a lie.

At the same time, they are much more susceptible to infectious diseases. For all these reasons, it is imperative that very young kittens not stay in our centers, and the majority of them are transferred out.

How about the not-so-young kittens? Oh, and how about addressing the real issue: the disease that runs rampant and unchecked in the shelters? Other shelters have very young kittens that don’t regularly die in their cages.

Horrifying.

I’m calling their bluff. If NYCACC needs cat fosters in order to stop killing highly adoptable kittens, count me in. My apartment is hardly ideal for caring for kittens, but it beats death, doesn’t it? I wandered over to their foster page, which is horribly confusing. It seems I’m available for the earliest next orientation, which is on July 16. That seems like an awfully long time to wait with so many animals dying.

This breaks my heart and at this point I hate to see those g-d blue walls behind any animal whose picture is being taken. Those are the walls of death and they are painted an unwelcoming shade of blue. This whole freaking situation is unacceptable. I am tired of those who could do or say something about this being silent or looking the other way or being afraid. And among them there are many who consider themselves animal lovers. Dammit all.

WENDY

WE NEED NO MORE KILL SHELTHERS, THIS IS GETTING OUT OF HAND. THESES PEOPLE WHO DO THIS NEED INVESTGATED. THESES POOR PUP AND KITTYS ARE THE ONES WHO PAY FOR THESES PEOPLES MEANTEST. I AGREE WITH MOST PEOPLE ABOUT THE BLUE WALLSIT IS UNACCEPTABLE, THESES BABIES DONT KNOW THE STRANGER. ALL THEY WANT IS TO BE LOVED AND GIVE LOVE IS THAT SO HARD !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Angel

Check out the Facebook pages from those of us who
crosspost these precious lives to try to save them. Some are only days old! Ages range between days, every week and of every year. I think those animals go straight to the kill list too!
I have purposely kept my eye on some to find they received fosters and rescues but instead were killed.

Angie

John you are absolutely right they do regularly KILL healthy cats & kittens I have sent numerous emails to Richard Gentles & Ellen Curtis regarding this very issue. While only a few of my emails have EVER been answered I continue to send them daily in an effort to try & save a life that shouldn’t be on the list to begin with.

Regarding the subject of kittens there are a few listed tonight & there were many listed the past few nights that for all intents & purposes are being killed because they are considered by ACC to be TOO YOUNG & UNDERWEIGHT FOR ADOPTIONS.

Nothing the NYC ACC does surprises me and NOTHING impresses me. I believe the ACC has stepped up the killing in response to animal advocates pushing for more time to network death row animals, asking to make the cats info available to the public & staying on top of their practices. They do NOT want the publicity & the more the spotlight falls on them, the more they will retaliate.
I also belive the new adoption process is a smoke screen whose true purpose is to muddy the waters for adopters. As far as fosters go, the ACC has never been proactive in seeking out fosters or working with them. They won’t work with anyone who truly cares or is in a position to save a life.
Everything they “do” falls short of the true mission they SHOULD ascribe to. I credit the underhanded, frauduent & deceptive policies of Julie Bank & Richard Gentles.

OK, I call BS on ACC requiring animals to be fixed before they leave the shelter. MY CAT left the shelter (5/25/12 KILL LIST) as “unspayed”… of course, because her 2 weeks at ACC turned her from a healthy cat to a seriously ill cat, she could not be spayed by the time she was plucked (thankfully) from the kill list. Why is ACC not handling this BEFORE the animals get sick? I have adopted from Washington Humane and you simply do not walk out of the shelter with an unfixed cat, period. Knowing URI runs rampant, they handle it BEFORE the infection sets in since they can’t do it AFTER. The last cat I adopted from there was fixed ONE FULL MONTH before I adopted him because he was sitting in the shelter, healthy and unfixed. In hindsight, I am glad the ACC butchers did not get anywhere near my cat.

Well guess what? Long story short: we got the cat out. I drove 500 miles round trip to get her back to DC. Scheduled a spay appointment (responsible pet owner that I am) here at National Capital Spay and Neuter once she recovered from her URI thanks to the absolute shameful filth at ACC (thank God for the low-cost service they provide to ALL DC animals) and SHE WAS ALREADY SPAYED. Is it really that hard, ACC?! I’m not a trained vet so I could not feel her scar but thankfully the WHS spay and neuter clinic called me as soon as they had her under and shaved her to say “hey, yay, your cat is already spayed.”

So this poor cat, already traumatized by two weeks in ACC, a 250 mile car trip back to DC and an adjustment to a new home also had to handle being knocked out because ACC couldn’t even determine if a young cat was spayed? Ugh. If only I had vet training and could have saved her the trip myself by feeling for what I now realize is a prominent spay scar. WHY NOT SHAVE HER?! WHS did and guess what? There it is! Fixed cat! Plain as day!

Sadly, a prominent spay scar sometimes turns out to be a fight wound. Have seen this before– cat with “spay scar” was actually intact — the spay scar was from a fight wound. I even rescued an ear tipped cat — that was extremely obvious to all that he was an intact male – ear tip was either a fight wound or a frostbite injury.

the volume of work in ACC is so high, and instead of vets, they use technicians…
they sweep out all the cats moving in the city for the money from the budget they get for every each cat in the end!
it’s quite a hunting, so who you think that cares too much about all the details insied ACC?

kate

um, i adopted two kittens from ACC that had return for surgery a couple weeks later because they were too young to spay when i brought them home. then, once they were fixed, i got my deposit back. I CALL BULLSHIT.

Don’t live near NYC so don’t have any personal contact with these folks, but it makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. This needs to be kept in front of everyone – killing healthy, very adoptable kittens is beyond understanding. I just don’t have the words to describe how horrible this is.
WHAT CAN WE DO?

siferal

Think about it. CACC does not fix, test, or vax animals before they get sick because they would be wasting resources on animals they know full well will be killed anyway. PLAIN AND SIMPLE. For the same reason that owner surrenders can be killed immediately – because ACC refuses to waste time, money, or effort on “caring for” animals for whom no-one is going to come looking. Brought in by your guardian? You’re dead in three minutes. This is the same organization that believes it somehow makes sense to hold ferals for 72 hours (to make sure they’re good and terrified) and then kill them because the “R” part of TNR is grossly unpopular. That’s right – let’s kill the cats that already have a home (their colony) and the animals who we know just CAME from a home (owner surrenders)…oh yeah, and any cat who sneezes, because we know THAT’s incurable too…just like “not eating on own” is a death sentence for a kitten. 71% of cats coming into the shelter will never leave alive – and these are only the stats we KNOW about…it is likely a much higher percentage. Until there’s some f—king accountability in this city, nothing will ever change…and the brick walls around us will simply get bloodier every second…

John – PLEASE do a piece on TNR in NYC…how some of the largest and richest animal welfare entities in the country (ASPCA, CACC, MA to name a few) CLAIM to support TNR as the “official policy” of NYC and yet continue to withdraw resources, suppress the truth, and abuse, insult, and just downright ignore those of us who truly want to change things for the better, and are busting our collective ass to do so. These power-mongers lie through their gleaming white teeth and we ALL pray for the day they begin to have even an inkling of what it feels like to get them knocked OUT. None of their excuses hold up to even the tiniest bit of intelligent scrutiny. We need BOTH public education, AND public policy to improve the status quo for the city’s free-roaming cat population – thereby improving the odds for ANY animal entering CACC facilities.

Not to mention they say “dogs and cats” and nowhere in 5 mins searching did I see any cats posted, just lots of dogs… makes me mad when there are usually twice as many cats listed to be killed there as dogs…

and how about the fact that the Mayor’s Alliance is known to pay people who trap and bring in ferals and strays (and lost pets) under the guise of TNR, when all they do is TK (Trap & Kill) (google Paul Zhang)… And they worked really hard to get the Companion Animal Access
and Rescue Act killed, successfully… CAARA would have set minimum standards that allow rescue groups to recover animals from a shelter, a society for the prevention of cruelty to animals, humane society or pound that are scheduled to be destroyed. Current New York law only allows for individuals to adopt from shelters, which gives shelters the ability to deny these qualified groups access to these animals.

As John is so aware, there are many many thing wrong with the NY ACC system, and it all comes from the top (Banks and Bloomberg)

It amazes me every day that they are using taxpayer money to commit these atrocities and more people aren’t outraged!!!

Allow me to share my story, because I love cats and really want to make sense of my recent experience. My cat of 12 years was a rescue from a feral colony. She was abandoned by her mother at three days old, because she had a puncture wound in her throat. I took her to the vet and hand-raised her. She lived a healthy life until she developed oral squamous cell carcinoma.

Because I knew how much that second chance meant to her and it broke my heart to lose her, I decided to foster a kitten on death row in her memory. The kitten called Alvin was listed as female and its medical records mentioned only fleas. Alvin turned out to be a male kitten, so the shelter got that wrong, and he also had coccidia, hookworm and tapeworm, as well as a viral and secondary bacterial URI. The Brooklyn ACC records said they treated him with Frontline, and he was covered in dead fleas when I rescued him.

The week that I had Alvin was the happiest he had ever known. He ate steak, had a warm bed, was bathed and loved, got to play like a kitten should. Then he began shitting blood one morning and died within a few hours, even after I had taken him to the vet two days before. It turned out he had panleukopenia, which ravages shelters and feral colonies in the summer.

There is plenty of blame to go around here. First and foremost, the assholes who don’t spay and neuter their pets or dump them on the streets, the cold fuckers who can walk past a starving kitten and shrug, the groups who know why shelters sentence kittens to death for sneezing and yell at the shelters, but most of all the staff who let these animals live in such squalor that is really tantamount to abuse. Because if they suspected this kitten had a contagious and highly fatal disease, why did they allow it to leave? They didn’t even know its sex or bother treating its known diseases — its stomach was bloated, and it had smelly diarrhea, so they knew it had parasites. But this kitten undoubtedly contracted feline panleuk at the Brooklyn ACC. There is nothing humane about allowing an animal to suffer like this. It’s a horrible disease that kills 95% of kittens under two months old. Do you know how you prevent its spreading? Bleach. Would it kill them to clean the cages and wash their hands and change their scrubs after knowingly coming into contact with the virus? I have talked to rescue groups who avoid the ACC because of their unsanitary conditions and sloppy paperwork. One woman told me a friend of hers volunteered, hoping to help reform it from the inside if they’re as overburdened as they say, and she brought tons of brand new clean towels. The staff took them all home. I wish there was some way to regulate the ACC, because it’s like their untouchable. Nothing ever changes.

But what I witnessed this week should never happen. If that kitten had come into contact with others, they would all be dead in the most painful and gruesome way. He was so wonderful to have around, and I would have saved him if I could. This was such an avoidable tragedy that only discourages people from adopting from the shelter and defeats their purported mission. It was traumatic for me losing two cats in one month, and now I can’t foster nursing kittens and queens, for example, totally salvageable death row candidates who are easy to care for provided you have enough space. I just wish ACC would get their shit together and maybe some more outrage could be directed at that instead of lamenting the kittens about to be PTS.

Saving one at a time

They lie thru their teeth.They fix sick animals, underweight and so on.We had a very sick pregnant cat that was spay aborted but have another foster that was so called to sick to spay.Then kittens that were less than 2 pounds spayed.We have we requested to foster cats and then they were found dead in their cages.Every foster we have received has been very sick and most if not all were healthy upon entering the Acc.The.place is hell for all animals and needs to be addressed properly.I pray for all animals entering that place.

One statement that caught my eye was the excuse about kittens needing more socialization than older cats. It is so much easier to socialize a cat than a dog, and the adopter can do it at home. Trust me, a largely indoor cat isn’t going to need half the amount of socialization that a puppy requires, but they still adopt out puppies, right? Or do they destroy the majority of puppies too?
And the line about the high likelihood of kittens being adopted before 1:00 p.m. struck me as ridiculous. Which segment of the population is most likely to clamor for a kitten? Children. When are children most likely to come to an animal shelter to choose a kitten? Well, from September to mid-June, that time is after 3:00 p.m., when school lets out. How do I know this? Because I wanted a kitten when I was a kid, and got one. (She’ll be fourteen this year. Bless her.)
It’s so easy to socialize a kitten–play with her, cuddle her, and let her eat from your hand. I’m tired of the excuses to euthanize.

jessesgirl

Do you think it would help to write to public officials (Mayor, Senators, Congressmen, etc.)
Is it possible that they are not fully aware of the atrocities committed at NYACC?

db

Seems like the only way they can be aware is if they WANT to be unaware. It’s public knowledge for anyone who wants to find out. Check out Urgent 2 as well as the kill list for cats and kittens on facebook. It is sickening how many healthy, (unhealthy after being at the facility), adoptable animals are killed daily (no, it’s not euthanasia, it’s killing). And the people who can make the changes refuse to. It really is pathetic and disgusting.
John, what is it going to take to change things in NYC? I contacted Maddies Fund about my concerns and they didn’t seem to think they had any say in how their funds are spent there. And the ASPCA is a partner to the murdering and neglect, so, in spite of what you might think about them, they won’t help. I don’t know what to do.
Guess people need to adopt from the rescues so they can continue pulling from the facilities (sorry, there is no way they are “shelters”).

I find it frustrating that people who also have to work, they also try to save those poor babies, but they are often ignored, so many got tired and simply gave up, example the lat prostest…
and as you noticed, healty cats, visibly in care of someone even in the street, once in the ACC, they get URI asap… then kill list. Must be stupid to not notice this!
almost forgot: you are right, this is killing, because the definition of euthanasia is for teminally ill animals.

Camille

Jessie, they are aware of it. There have been protest outside of these places. I know people who have gathered large groups to attend council meetings to demand an explanation for these practices. Many were told there was no room in chambers and the doors were shut in their faces. The only way to end this is vote these people out. Let their cruelty be seen by voters.

What can we do about this – New York sickens me – I never realized how truly bad the shelter system is here – who is running these shelters – get them out and get people in that truly care and want to make a difference – As Ghandi said and I am sure its not his exact words – A Nation will be judged on how they treat their animals – we as a nation are failing miserably – N.Y. is top of the list as far as I can see – lets change this and when future generations look back they won’t detest us for what we did to all the animals! marysinacore@gmail.com

i have tried to rescue a few cats from acc for fostering or adoption but i live in connecticut and they don’t like out of state people. what the hell? new york people don’t want them so let them be adopted out of state. i see kittens and young healthy cats on the tbd list that would be adopted in a heartbeat. more and more cats end up on the euth list every day. healthy, very adoptable cats are killed. some are rated nh only because they are terrified. that means they have to be pulled by a rescue. injured cats don’t get to the vet, they sit in pain and then are killed because they reacted badly. i’m pretty sure all the government people know what goes on there. it pisses me off and breaks my heart to see all the cats in the gone folder simply because people who wanted them couldn’t get them. there is no advertising of the cats.

New York people actually do want them – it’s very difficult to adopt from ACC and many animals on kill lists are restricted from adoption to the public.

Camille

This sums up the NYCACC beautifully. I live in the South, it’s bad here too but we manage to fill even our rural shelters with heathy kittens. The tiny and sick ones go to foster homes, like mine. The healthy ones are ALWAYS for adoption. We get people in with the kittens and encourage the adoption of an older cat as a companion as well. New York City should be setting progressive trends in animal care, not killing kittens. Shame on you NYC.

jmuhj

Another point which I will keep making until it is no longer true is that the mainstream media as well as most of the animal advocacy media is now pushing dogs down the public’s throats and ignoring, or worse, deprecating, cats. This did not used to be the case only a few short years ago, when there was more egalitarian advocacy. Let’s push, speak up for, advocate for, and walk the talk for CATS, the nation’s and the world’s most beloved companions, FIRST!

If there are so many adoptable animals getting PTS, why on earth aren’t the pet stores like Petco, PetSmart, etc., taking in some of these animals to show on a daily basis? Even having a pet showing every weekend to assist the ACC in getting homes for these babies. That is the solution. Some people do not go to the ACC, while they go to get food, supplies from their pet shops on a regular basis. These babies need to be seen! They will get adopted! They need to be moved to the place where pet parents congregate and that is the pet shops! Of course, the word is “don’t buy from a pet store”. Okay, what if the pets up for adoption at the pet store are ones who would be PTS in a matter of hours if they are left unadopted at ACC?

They used to. The Department of Health – yes, the same DOH that oversees their contract – was fining the pet stores that hosted ACC animals for having sick animals – ill with ailments they had acquired at DOH-supervised ACC. They had to stop going.

The kittens,as young as 2 weeks,are listed on the kill list daily. And many times they took them away from their nursing mom. Disgusting. Cats in many places are treated as vermin. Florida has a kill on sight law because cats are non native…..yeah,and most of the animals here are non native including the people. We have a cat hating bunch running the show. This needs to change. No kill is the solution.

Anna Kay

Lets PROTEST !!!! lets get all together and stand infront of every
single ACC shelter and bang on their doors with huge signs … it will
be on the news and we will make things happen. WE HAVE TOO, how long do
you guys want to sit here and comment, we need to do something
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I just signed a petition called Manhattan ACC on Causes.com. I want to help very much but have no idea what to do except send e-mail to governor or sign petitions. I think millions want to help but collectively where do we start?